Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Last Sunday of the Church Year

Listen to me, listen to me, my people, and you kings, give ear to me, because the law will go forth from me, and my judgment as a light to the nations. My righteousness approaches quickly, and even my salvation will go forth as a light, and nations will hope in my strength. Islands will wait for me and will hope in my strength. Lift your eyes up to the sky and look at the earth below, for the sky will become solid like smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who inhabit it will die just like these things, but my salvation will endure forever, and my righteousness surely shall not cease. (Isaiah 51:4–6 LXX)

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:24–37)

From the sky and the earth, from the things on high and those below, learn of My power. I produced these elements with great ease and, conversely, I can make them disappear. “But My salvation shall be for eternity, and My righteousness shall not fail.” This is what the Lord has likewise said in the holy Gospels: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Isaiah 16.51.6

How well, indeed, you philosophers teach us, and how usefully you advise us, that after death rewards and punishments fall with lighter weight! Whereas, if any judgment awaits souls at all, it ought rather to be supposed that it will be heavier at the conclusion of life than in the conduct thereof, since nothing is more complete than that which comes at the very last—nothing, moreover, is more complete than that which is especially divine. Accordingly, God’s judgment will be more full and complete, because it will be pronounced at the very last, in an eternal irrevocable sentence, both of punishment and of consolation. Then souls are not to transmigrate into beasts, but are to return into their own proper bodies. And all this once for all, and on “that day, too, of which the Father only knows” in order that by her trembling expectation faith may make full trial of her anxious sincerity, keeping her gaze ever fixed on that day, in her perpetual ignorance of it, daily trembling that for which she yet daily hopes.

Tertullian, On the Soul 33